The best service providers give you online tools to manage your network.
Historically, most Internet and WAN providers have been opposed to providing their clients the ‘keys to their Network Highway’. There are a variety of security and performance reasons behind this resistance. But that’s their problem. Your problem is that you need a network to perform as designed. When the network isn’t performing you should be able to see what’s going on and get help making adjustments.The Truth About Some Networks
Most providers have control issues. Carriers have provided networks (frame relay, IP-sec, MPLS) for years now. Networks take a lot of resources to design, implement and maintain. Network Providers are challenged to maintain performance standards in the best of circumstances. As a result, most are resistant to allowing end users the ability to view much less change routes, bandwidth and the overall behavior of their corporate network. Imagine, if everyone makes random changes then the service provider’s overall network may not be able to handle all the combined activity changes. (This possibility is what really scares the weaker network providers.) Change is here. Business activities are moving faster than ever before. IT departments (perhaps yours) are under increasing pressure to adapt more quickly. Here’s a great reason you want to choose a progressive carrier team to create your private networks. Some providers are listening to their client demands. As a result, some have developed better network tools for client management. Clients can now get much more control over the network they pay for. For example we’re seeing better graphic-based tools that show- Real-time circuit utilization
- Network congestion points
- Network consumption by service type (http, SAP, etc.)
- Peak utilization times
- Open trouble tickets